Review: Malcolm Bricklin is a hardass. Pure and simple this is the male version of The Devil Wears Prada, and it’s the very obvious attribute of his character that helped make him a success and failure in the car industry many times over. In fact, it is quite obvious that his son most likely made this documentary at the urging/demanding of his father. But unlike most films starring a complete and utter jackass, there is no heart of gold lying underneath the surface, it’s just more of the same. This flaw may initially hook you, but it will ultimately leave you wanting more. If hardass is what you want, there is plenty of it in The Entrepreneur. Whether it is the opening scene with him yelling at his investors or any number of storm outs during contract negotiations, Malcolm isn’t afraid to encourage people to respect him through pure and utter contempt. You can just see the looks on these people’s eyes as they glare angrily but still maintain their investment. Unfortunately, you never hear directly from them about their feelings, which leaves everyone (including Malcolm) a little too static shallow as characters. Of course, the unfortunate foil to Malcolm is his son’s narration. Jonathan’s voice reminds me of an ever-loving Michael Moore. Even during sarcastic moments, you feel as if he’s still finding a way to show his affection for his dad. As an audience member, the dichotomy is annoying and as a citizen it’ll concern you to think he is unable to stand up to this overbearing SOB of a father. Making it worse, the narration only helps transition from event to even about half of the time. The rest of the film sort of requires background knowledge of the whole event. And, despite what the Bricklin family wants you to believe, this was never a major story. Jonathan does seem to learn on the job though. And by the end, the son learns how to successfully turn an otherwise mundane meeting into a suspenseful event. By then however, this creative success doesn’t help audiences truly connect with The Entrepreneur. This is a film that has all the right pieces, but it’s just been cut together improperly- unnecessary scenes left in, required background information left out. Stepping out of his father’s shadow a little bit more would have helped Jonathan make this into a better documentary. But even as it stands, it’s not horrible, it’s just not stellar. Review by Matthew Abshire Informative: 2.5- too many gaps in information for non-entrepreneur’s to follow Entertainment: 2.5- Bricklin’s personality is not enough to carry this film Technical: 2.5- the sense of pacing starts to come together towards the end, but it doesn’t fix the rest of the film’s quality Overall: 2.5- all the right pieces without the proper know how to put it together
 
Format: Hulu.com Year: 2009 Running Time: 91 Min Distributor: Warrior Poets Producer: Jonathan Bricklin, Bill Mack and Franck Raharinosy Director: Jonathan Bricklin Date Reviewed: 7-27-2009 Story: Filmmaker Jonathan Bricklin follows his father Malcolm Bricklin (known for bringing the Subaru and Yugo to North America) as he dreams of being the first to distribute Chinese cars in North America. The big-mouthed, egocentric Malcolm has gained and lost millions in his lifetime, and he knows that this may be his last chance to succeed or fail on a major level. Flying back and forth between the U.S. and China, the roadblocks mount up faster than the sky miles, but can this distribution legend come out on top?